


Observations and Opera References

by strawberriesandtophats



Series: Disaster Management has always been their forte [5]
Category: Endeavour (TV)
Genre: Grudging Attraction, Kissing, M/M, On-Again/Off-Again Relationship, Resentment, Smoking, Specialized Knowledge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 03:22:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9859871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberriesandtophats/pseuds/strawberriesandtophats
Summary: A person should not be able to solve so many cases based on their admittedly impressive  knowledge about operas, in Jakes's humble opinion. But this is Oxford and suspects like to make references that are supposed to go over policemen's heads. He's just along for the ride.





	

Jakes threw his cigarette stub on the floor and briefly entertained the idea of resigning and starting a new life somewhere far away. He had spent hours chasing leads, calling people on the phone and interviewing suspects, all good honest police work. Then Morse had swept in, his curls all over the place and smelling like a dusty music shop and solved the case because one of the suspects had given himself away as one of the murderers by making a reference to some bloody opera.

Morse had practically dragged him to the car, grabbing his upper arm and talking about how the plot of the opera fit perfectly to the common theme of the murders. Jakes had found himself responding, mostly because he knew that they were hot on the murderer’s trail and also because Morse was looking at him with gleaming eyes and relying on him to help. Jakes pushed down the memory of the warmth he had felt half an hour ago when he’d overheard Morse telling another Constable that Jakes had behaved like a proper, experienced Sergeant should and acted like they were a team instead of telling Morse to shut up. Jakes had allowed Morse to babble on about opera references and scales and character development while he drove to where they had last seen the main suspects.

He could have stopped him in his tracks, pulled rank and refused to follow. A part of him had wanted to do that to show Morse what that felt like. Now his opportunity to shine, to show the value of hard work had passed and Morse was standing beside him outside the nick, looking like a damn painting in a museum with his tousled hair and freckles in the moonlight. It wasn’t fair. Jakes could not believe that he was going to push Morse against the wall of his dingy room and kiss him later. He didn’t have to, but he was going to do it.

They had the murderer handcuffed within the hour because Morse seemed to have some sort of a built-in translator for weird references the nobs kept making, but at the cost of understanding normal people when they were trying to talk about football and eating lunch. Morse didn’t eat lunch and was always on the verge of fainting so that Jakes had to smuggle him biscuits and throw fruit at him during office hours. The cost of having that translator was too high if it meant not eating food or understanding the most basic contemporary references. But at least all that specialized knowledge meant lots of big cases were solved. They made a good team, even though Jakes did most of the heavy lifting when it came to doing proper police work and Morse liked to play the loner card. That had to count for something.

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I decide to take the night off.
> 
> Inspired by this drawing: http://rathvelus.tumblr.com/post/157209994690/unearthes-fandom-classic-can-u-feel-the-jarse


End file.
